Eclipse is an integrated development environment that is used in computer programming.
It is the mostly widely use Java IDE and contains a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system for customising the environment.
The platform has been designed to build integrated web and application development tooling.
It is designed to not offer a huge amount of end user functionality but the value of the platform comes with its ability to encourage the rapid development of integrated features based on a plug-in model.
Eclipse provides a common user interface model for working with tools and is designed to run on multiple operating systems.
What is the core of Eclipse?
The core of Eclipse is an architecture for dynamic discovery, loading, and running of plug-ins. The platform handles the logistics of finding and running the right code.
It also provides a standard user navigation model so that each plug-in can focus on its tasks.
The platform itself is structured as subsystems which are implemented in one or more plug-ins, these subsystems are built on top of a small runtime engine.
The software initially came from a team at IBM but in 2001 a consortium of companies was formed to act as stewards of its development.
Eclipse is now under the Eclipse Foundation and is available under the Eclipse Public License.
